| Peak | Cucamonga Peak |
|---|---|
| Group | N/A |
| Trailhead | Icehouse Canyon |
I’m still finding it tough to write these in a tone that doesn’t sound terrible. Haha. Anyway, I got to the trailhead at 7am and the parking lot was already jammed with people parked all down the street. Did not bode well for much solitude on the trails. The ranger at the permit box actually said, “why do people all go to Cucamonga? Ontario is nicer.”
The hike to Icehouse Saddle is pretty straight forward on a steady incline. There is a pretty little stream that you walk along thru the first mile or so. Eventually does get a little more intense with some switchbacks up the canyon to the saddle. The Saddle is a nice place to relax and eat an orange. Once you start heading back to Cucamonga, the trail is pretty level for probably about a mile until you reach another small saddle where it starts up a pretty step set of switchbacks. I found the most difficult part of it was that there were so many people it felt like you were being passed or passing people going both ways. I never enjoy that feeling.
When you reach the top it felt like there were 30+ people trying to take photos at Cucamonga Rock including several different poses. I snapped my pic of it as one person was getting off and another on. I found it kinda weird in general but there were some great views of the Inland Empire and surrounding peaks. By mid day the heat had gotten around 90, so it was a pretty exhausting, but uneventful walk back to the trailhead.
